LAUSD to pay $3.75 million to vendor of student information software (the one before MiSiS) in lawsuit settlementBy Abby Sewell, LA Times | http://lat.ms/1rkw28N
The agreement, which was disclosed by the district Thursday, came after a two-year court battle between L.A. Unified and two companies -- Maximus Inc. and Harris Education Consulting – that developed the student information system. Known as the Integrated Student Information System, or ISIS, that program was intended to help L.A. Unified comply with a federal consent decree stemming from a lawsuit over alleged violations of the rights of special education students. L.A. Unified spent $112 million developing the system, but never fully implemented it. Instead, the district switched course in 2012 and developed a new system using code developed by Microsoft and the Fresno Unified School District. That system, known as My Integrated Student Information System, or MISIS, had a rocky launch last month, with teachers reporting widespread glitches in the software. The district contracted with Maximus in 2003 to build the original software. Harris bought Maximus’ education software division in 2008 and took over the contract. In 2012, the district filed an arbitration demand against the two vendors, followed by a lawsuit. District officials argued the system is “not only several years late, it is also incomplete and plagued with critical problems.” The district also argued that Harris should not have taken over the contract from Maximus without approval from the school board and sought to have the company pay back $12 million. A panel of arbitrators ruled against Los Angeles Unified and ordered the district to pay $10 million to Harris. A Superior Court judge later reduced the amount to about $6 million. Both sides appealed the decision. The settlement brings the case to an end. The district spent $2.3 million on outside attorneys litigating the case from arbitration through the appeal, said the district's chief business and compliance counsel, Gregory McNair. McNair said the district was "satisfied with the terms of the settlement." An attorney for Harris declined to comment.
Do the math:
| L.A. school district will double staff helping with iPad rollout at cost of $9.2 millionBy Howard Blume | http://lat.ms/1AUQ2Qb
L.A. Unified will double number of employees helping with iPad rollout issues iPads were underused in L.A. classrooms and the curriculum on them was barely used at all, report says In response to problems with providing iPads to all students, teachers and campus administrators, the Los Angeles school system will double the number of people who will help with technical and instructional issues. Getting such aid to L.A. Unified schools and teachers was one key recommendation from a critical evaluation of the district's $1.3-billion technology program. The technical assistance this year will involve about 120 employees at a cost of about $3.9 million to the general fund and about $5.3 million charged to school construction bonds.
The report, released Wednesday, found that the speed and size of the district’s effort created serious, widespread difficulties. They included technical glitches, inconsistent and incomplete training and poor communication within the district and with the public. The result was reduced use of the iPads. And the curriculum being developed by Pearson, at a cost of about $200 per device for a three-year license, barely was being used at all. District officials said they accept the findings and, for the most part, saw no surprises in the report. Increasing the number of technicians, said project director Bernadette Lucas, will help schools fix technical issues faster. And adding more digital teaching specialists will assist instructors in using the iPads more effectively in the classroom. The original timetable was for every student to have an iPad--at about 1,000 schools--by the end of 2014. Instead, all students will have them at 58 schools. The remaining campuses have a smaller number of iPads, while students at 20 high schools will try out laptops. L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy last month suspended purchases under the iPad contract. There is no schedule yet for a new bidding process. Lucas said the slower deployment represents an opportunity to concentrate on instruction. The district has revamped its training, focusing on developing a qualified “leadership team” at each school, consisting of the principal and small group of teachers. There also are training sessions across the school system that anyone can attend—even those at schools that don’t yet have devices for every student. One training for principals took place this month at the Hollywood studios of the Jim Henson Company, which were donated for the day. Principals got updates on web filtering, useful applications, what parents need to know and plans for sending the devices home with students. They also received a morale boosting studio tour that included a discussion of digital puppetry. The technology project evaluation was conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based American Institutes for Research, which has a five-year $2.5-million contract. The report recorded widespread complaints with the Pearson curriculum, and little use of it. Among 245 classrooms visited in May, only one was using the Pearson materials. That picture should improve with a more intense focus on training, and it also helps that teachers now have access to the full curriculum, said Gerardo Loera, the district’s head of Curriculum, Instruction, & School Support. |
This page is a compendium of items of interest - news stories, scurrilous rumors, links, academic papers, damnable prevarications, rants and amusing anecdotes - about LAUSD and/or public education that didn't - or haven't yet - made it into the "real" 4LAKids blog and weekly e-newsletter at http://www.4LAKids.blogspot.com . 4LAKidsNews will be updated at arbitrary random intervals.
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